Early War Years

A Memory of Barnehurst.

This is very much a shot in the dark.
My parents, Jim & Eva Davidson, moved to Barnhurst in the late 1930s and lived in a maisonette, ground floor I believe. My father worked at the Woolwich Arsenal ordinance factory and I was around 3-4 years old, having been born in Ilford in 1936.
Obviously my memory is minimal but there are a few things that may jog somebody's.
My father dug a out and erected an Anderson Shelter in the back garden.
The husband of the couple who lived above us was an Air Raid Warden who my father used to say drove him mad with his whistle when the sirens went. They had at least one child, a daughter, who would be roughly my age.
We left in 1941 I believe when my father was transferred away to Glasgow where he originated from.
One thing I do remember was the shrapnel bouncing off the Anderson shelter during the air raids.
We did call back once in the 1950s and met the upstairs neighbors. Other than that I haven't got much for anybody to go at.
Later in the war my father was moved again, this time to Leeds, still with the ordinance factory. He had expected to be moved back to Woolwich at the end of the war but much to his dismay his papers were transferred to Leeds permanently.


Added 23 August 2011

#233182

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